[Oe List ...] {Disarmed} Repository Update--One Year On

[Jeanette Stanfield]

Dear Gordon, 
Thank you for reminding me to get back into the Repository.  I really
appreciated the audio recording of
George Walters reflections at the Springboard gathering in Denver.

Peace,
Jeanette


gharper1 at mindspring.com

> Colleagues --
> 
> This is for those of you interested in the OE/EI/ICA Repository project--a
> report on progress so far and a glance down the road ahead.
> 
> It's the Fourth of July, and I'm sitting here at my sister's cottage on Gull
> Lake, near Brainard, MN, watching an ungodly collection of all younger members
> of my extended family splash around.
> 
> A brief historical note: we unveiled the Repository just a year and three
> weeks ago.  It was at the largest gathering for many years of colleagues old
> and new in the Northwest.  The event was hosted at the Songaia Community
> Center (formerly the Residential Learning Center) by the ICA US Board
> President.  The occasion was the welcoming and honoring of ICA's recently
> hired (and first) US Executive, Betsy Houde, upon her initial visit to
> Seattle.  Len Hockley and I demonstrated and explained the Repository on the
> big screen (it was a bit too far for our third co-conspirator, Tim Wegner, to
> come up from Texas).  A general introduction and invitation to participate in
> it then went out to everyone on our community listservs immediately after
> this.
> 
> What a difference a year can makes.  Everyone left that meeting a year ago
> talking about the rather breathtaking and hope-filled new vision for the
> organization that Betsy had laid out.  Within the space of less than three
> weeks, however, we were learning of the sequence of events that would lead in
> rapid succession to her departure from the ICA, the US Board's hiring of a
> consultant organization, its dismissal of the program staff, changes in the
> Board membership and leadership, its hiring of new staff and its closing of
> the Phoenix office.  The Repository appears to be one of the few things
> introduced at that meeting that has survived the year that followed.
> 
> Len, Tim and I had been clear as we worked on developing the Repository during
> the previous year that this was to be an independent and voluntary venture.
> It was not in any way an ICA project or connected with any ICA current
> programmatic direction.  We wanted it to be free from any form of
> organizational direction or oversight, as well as to safeguard ICA from any
> potential liability for what might appear here.  We were also convinced that
> it should be not simply a US activity but one for Order colleagues around the
> world.  Hence the first words (disclaimers, if you will) that appeared and
> still appear on the Repository's opening page.
> 
> During the past year, well over one hundred of you have not only visited the
> Repository but also taken the trouble to register on it.  (We have no way of
> knowing how many of you may have visited and not registered.)  Of those of you
> registered (required for posting materials), something like half have made
> contributions to it.  There are now several hundred items in the collection,
> to use library terminology.  We're very grateful that it has received this
> kind of response.
> 
> If you've not had occasion to visit the Repository lately, let me mention few
> of the recent additions you'll find there and some of the new arenas into
> which it has ventured.
> * Stories abounding, as you've shared experiences from 5th City then and now,
> Kenya, the consults, witnesses, Azpitia, India and so on.
> * 
> * 
> * Historical accounts of such things as the move from Austin to Chicago, the
> selection of the Congolese Cross as the Order symbol, the choice of ICA as the
> first object of study by the Appreciative Inquiry team, how we got famous
> people to help us make those videos and the origins of the wedgeblade symbol.
> * 
> * 
> * Documents and graphics from our past, like the NRM and Other World charts,
> NSV and Social Process materials and the pack-it-all-into-one-page RS-I
> Construct for pedagogues.
> * 
> * 
> * Completions--a new category we've added to the original four entry points or
> doorways into the Repository materials.  This is our place to honor and
> celebrate those who die on the march.  We began with Brian Stanfield and Vance
> Engleman and more recently have added David Reese, Sir James Lindsay and Larry
> Henschen.  This has now become one of our major side categories.
> * 
> * 
> * Photos you've found in your personal archives and posted: e.g., JWM shortly
> after the move to the West Side and Slicker in Kenya, meeting with his
> replication team.
> * 
> * 
> * More country maps and introductory pages on our work in those countries from
> our annual reports on what was happening around the world.
> * 
> * 
> * In our Reflective Writings area, more postings of songs and poetry, along
> with longer thoughtful pieces sparked by the recent events in the ICA US
> operations. 
> * 
> * 
> * Future oriented materials from the recent Order Springboard Gathering in
> Denver on how we might begin to harvest our learnings from the past and
> empower a new generation of Those Who Care.
> * 
> * 
> * The Portal--a wormhole, single entry point to Order materials and websites.
> * 
> * 
> * And, miscellaneous, some of Joe's handwritten notes and charts and a
> description (from 1978) of what we anticipated the world would look like
> twenty years into the future.
> * 
> 
> Where do we think this is going??  God knows, Charlie Brown!  We want you to
> continue to make available to all of us these personally chosen treasures from
> our past and contributions toward our future.  We look forward to posting
> audio clips of classic lectures and songs as we're able to find and digitize
> them.  We'll make links on the Portal page to other Order sites, listservs,
> publications and resources as we become aware of them.  We're still searching
> for how to make our classic videos accessible to all of us--Oprah's 5th City,
> Those Who Care, The World of Human Development, etc.  If you have some savvy
> about streaming video, we'd love to hear from you.
> 
> We intend the Repository to support efforts toward both identifying what we've
> learned as individuals and as a community and making that wisdom available to
> current and future members of the League.  We'll be using it to share what
> happens at the upcoming Order gathering in Canada (more on this in a later
> posting) and welcome your sharing any such forward thinking efforts.  We're
> delighted at David Dunn's participation in our venture and the moving of the
> Springboard Gathering materials to the site.  We'd be most greatful for others
> to join our informal team who can see ways or bring new skills to make this
> enterprise more user friendly, better organized, practially useful and
> supportive of our ongoing mission.
> 
> If you['ve stayed with this report thus far, thanks so much for listening and
> for being part of this.  Remember, all you have to type in your browser is
> wedgeblade.net, and baby, you are there!
> 
> Gordon Harper
> for the Repository Team
> 
> 
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